Outdoor lighting fixtures (sometimes such as those commonly referred to as roadway lighting fixtures or roadway fixtures) are commonly used to illuminate streets, highways, and parking lots, among other areas. These roadway fixtures typically include different types of lighting elements such as fluorescent, halogen, or incandescent lights. Beyond consuming a significant amount of power, these roadway lighting fixtures require routine maintenance as light sources generally have only a limited lifetime of operation before burning out. Some new roadway lighting fixtures utilize LED light sources. These roadway fixtures consume lower power and have lower operating expenses because the LED light sources have a significantly longer operating lifetime.
Particularly, with the longer operating lifetimes of the LED light sources, maintenance is required more sparingly to replace the LED light sources, as compared to other light sources. Further, the lower power consumption of the LED light sources leads to lower utility costs. These and other aspects have led to adoption of LED light sources in new roadway lighting fixtures. However, because of differences between the operating characteristics of the LED light sources and the fluorescent, halogen, or incandescent light sources, for example, many features of lighting fixtures that incorporate the LEDs must be redesigned. In this context, new lighting fixtures incorporating design characteristics particularly suited for LED light sources are necessary.
As one design consideration for new LED lighting fixtures, it is noted that advances in the field of LEDs may precipitate early replacement of legacy LED lighting fixtures (or portions thereof) with new LED lighting fixtures (or portions thereof). As it is anticipated that existing LED lighting fixtures (or portions thereof) may be replaced or upgraded in the future, new LED lighting fixtures should be designed to offer a simple and effective upgrade path.